July 3. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



n 



• ■•• Noose as I was" and " Noose the seme" were 

 frequent replies, in my younger days, to inquiries 

 from persons relative to another's state of health ; 

 and occasionally I have heard, in answer to a 

 general inquiry of "JWow do you do f" or, " How 

 do you find yourself f" the reply '■'■ Tightish in a 

 noose." Now, this not having been confined to 

 one particular locality, I should be much pleased 

 if any of your correspondents would throw a light 

 <Hi the unde derivatur of the phrase. W. R. 



Surbiton. 



'■^La Garde meurt" S'C. (Vol.v.)p.425.) — In a 

 late number of " N. & Q." reference is made to 

 the famous saying ascribed to the Duke of Wel- 

 lington at Waterloo : " Up guards, and at them ! " 

 I beg to call the attention of your readers to the 

 equally famous words said to have been uttered 

 by the brave Murat, who, when summoned to sur- 

 render, is reported to have answered, "La garde 

 meurt, et ne se rend pas." 



I have heard it stated on good authority that 

 these were not the words of Murat, but that he 

 merely answered the summons with the emphatic 

 monosyllable " Merde ! " — a response which, 

 though no wise so elegant, conveys the same idea 

 as the commonly received version, and is much 

 more characteristic of the man. I shall be de- 

 lighted to receive some light as to the historical 

 Jact, what Murat's answer really was ? R. C. B. 



Coral Charms. — On the little bunches of coral 

 charms, imported from Italy, amid hands to avert 

 the evil eye, &c., there generally hangs a rather 

 unmeaning-looking one, like a single finger. Is 

 not this neither more nor less than the veritable 

 fascinum ? If not, what is it ? A. A. D. 



Maturin Laurent. — I wish to learn where, when, 

 and what, Maturin or Mathurin Laurent was. He 

 ■was the author of a work rather indecent and 

 irreligious, somewhat learned, and not altogether 

 tindull, entitled Le Compere Mathieu. It is an 

 imitation of the manner of Rabelais. I can find 

 his name in no biographical dictionary. A. N. 



Mons. Cahagnet. — Dr. Gregory, in his Letters 

 on Animal Magnetism., p. 222., says : 



" Mr. Cahagnet is since dead, or I should have en- 

 deavoured to see his experiments." 

 But I am credibly assured he has just published 

 a new work of the most extreme Cahagnetism. 

 Which of the two Is the truth ? Or, does he (like 

 Hermotimus of old) divide his time between this 

 •world and the next — slipping away to his country- 

 house in Paradise when he apprehends a visit from 

 a Scotch philosopher ? A. N. 



James Murray^ titular Earl of Dunbar. — Lord 

 Albemarle, at p. 161. vol. i. of his Memoirs of the 

 Marquis of Rockingham and his Contemporaries, 

 speaks of James Murray of Broughton, titular 



Earl of Dunbar, secretary to Prince Charles Ed- 

 ward, and who afterwards became approver in the 

 State Trials of 1746, as the brother of the first 

 Lord Mansfield. 



Is not this a mistake ? The great Chief Justice, 

 as all the world knows, was the younger son of a 

 Perthshire peer. Viscount Stormont. 



Was not James Murray of Broughton the re* 

 presentative of a family in Kirkcudbright, which 

 was either not at all, or very remotely, connected 

 with the Stormont-Mansfield Murrays ? C. (2.) 



Portsmouth. 



Lanthorns. — Where is this passage to be foundj 

 which I have copied from a MS. Place-book, rela-* 

 tlve to the origin of lanthorns ? 



" The inventor of lanthorns was one King Alured, 

 in whose days the churches were of so poor a struc- 

 ture that the candles were blown out set before the 

 relics, the wind getting in not only ostia ecclesiarunif 

 hut per frequentes parietutn rimulas : insomuch that the 

 ingenious prince was put to the practice of his dexterity, 

 and by the occasions of this lanternam ex lignis et hovinis 

 cornibus pulcherrime construere imperavit ; or by an apt 

 composure of their horns and wood he taught us the 

 mystery of making lanthorns." 



I do not remember ever to have met with thi^ 

 origin of those useful articles before. 



C. Redding. 



[The substance of the passage will be found towards 

 the close of Asser's Life of Alfred.'^ 



A Popidar Book censured in the Pulpit^ in the 

 time of Queen Anne. — 



" The face of a Book in vogue, looks indeed with a 

 sowre aspect against the Priesthood only, but intends (if 

 we may turn aside its disguise) a wound and stab to the 

 Revelation that once settled and still upholds it. Nor 

 would it fare so ill, I verily believe, with the characters 

 of Priests either among the Authors or Admirers of 

 that Treatise, if it were not for Tithes and Offerings, 

 the Lands and Revenues, which the Law and Gospel 

 both allow for the support of that Order." — Pp. 24, 25. 

 of A Sermon preached by Rev. Richard Barker, M.A., 

 Fellow of Winchester College, before Jonathan, Lord 

 Bishop of Winchester, Sept. 22, 1707. 



What is the book alluded to, and who was th^ 

 author ? F. R. R. 



[Most probably Matthew Tindal's treatise, The 

 Rights of the .Christian Church Asserted, against the 

 Romish and all other Priests who claim an independent 

 Power over it, published in 1706. The work, which is 

 an elaborate attack upon what are commonly called 

 High- Church principles, caused a great commotion; 

 It is related that, to a friend who found Tindal one 

 day engaged upon it, pen in hand, he said that he was 

 writing a book which would make the clergy mad-. 

 Replies to it were published by the celebrated William 

 Wotton, Dr. Hickes, and others.] 



